Energy Efficient Glass Market to Gain Pace from Impending Energy Crisis in the World

The concept of sustainable development has gained immense importance, especially at the current time when the world is moving rapidly towards the development of smart cities across different countries. Architects and designers came up with the concept of ‘net zero energy’ buildings in the last century, and since then, many buildings have been erected on this concept. For instance, in the 1960s, St George’s School in Wallasey, UK, was designed in such a manner that eliminated the need for external heating requirements in the school. One of the key points in this architecture was the use of a kind of glass which prevented the building to lose any heat and captured free solar heat gains.

Since the inception of ‘net zero energy’ building concept, glass has held an immense importance in the field of construction materials, and a number of research has taken place to improve the properties of glass. The glasses having single, double, and triple glazing units with inert gas filling and invisible low-emissivity coatings, active and passive glass technologies are currently being used in windows, doors, windshields, sunroofs, to maximise or limit solar heat gains as per the external weather conditions. One of the types of glass that are being used is the energy efficient glass which is integrated with technology, glazing, or coatings to enhance conservation of energy.

The energy efficient glass possesses properties which help in the reduction of gas emissions, energy consumption, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) bills of a building, and provides increased fuel efficiency in vehicles over the conventional glass, among others. The looming energy crisis in the world is causing a gradual shift in the construction industry towards energy efficient glass and research regarding low power consuming technologies has also increased in number. Most of the new buildings being constructed in various developed and developing countries are increasingly using glass structures for walls. Likewise, the automotive industry is also integrating the latest innovations in the glass industry.

The global energy efficient glass market is expected to reach $17.85 billion by 2026. The growth of the market can be attributed to the increasing demand for energy efficient products, governmental regulations, incentives, and the rising market penetration of smart glass technologies into various end-use industries. Despite the growth stimulation in the form of government regulations aiming to reduce the limit of carbon emissions in the emerging countries, the market is experiencing inhibitions because of high initial set-up costs, low awareness about the smart glass products, and technological barriers. This market has evolved considerably in the developed regions such as North America and Europe and is steadily gaining traction in regions such as Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America.